Mutual Mending as Netanyahu Comes to Washington

WASHINGTON (March 22) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit here is being marked by a conciliatory speech today by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a dinner tonight with Vice President Joe Biden and a meeting Tuesday with President Barack Obama. The agenda alone is a sign that the U.S. and Israel are trying to put the recent crisis over Israeli housing construction in East Jerusalem behind them, even if there is minimal substantive change in their positions on that issue.

Netanyahu is in Washington for the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, where Clinton delivered a speech that focused on the need to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power -- an issue that Israel considers crucial to its existence.

"Our aim is not incremental sanctions, but sanctions that will bite," Clinton told AIPAC, the most powerful pro-Israel lobbying group in the capital.

"Let me be very clear: The United States is determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons," she said.

Clinton also received loud applause when she called for the freedom of an Israeli soldier who has been held captive in Gaza for almost four years. "Gilad Shalit must be released immediately and reunited with his family," she said.

Her references to the dispute over Israel's settlement construction were firm but muted. "New construction in East Jerusalem or the West Bank undermines mutual trust and endangers the proximity talks that are the first step toward the full negotiations that both sides want and need," she said, adding that the ongoing building "exposes daylight between Israel and the United States that others in the region could hope to exploit."

The toned-down rhetoric on both sides comes after Netanyahu made a series of concessions that the United States hopes will help restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. He agreed to allow cement into Gaza to repair a sewage plant damaged in last year's fighting between Israel and Hamas, and to free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture. Netanyahu also agreed that the "proximity" talks between the U.S. and Israel will deal with all the core issues on the agenda, including Jerusalem.

On the issue that sparked the crisis -- Israeli construction in East Jerusalem -- Netanyahu did not cancel the 1,600 housing units in Ramat Shlomo. But privately Israeli officials said the construction would be "delayed" in order not to further embarrass the U.S. The announcement of the construction 10 days ago came while Biden was visiting Jerusalem and was widely perceived as an awkward slight toward Israel's most important ally.

"President Obama basically got what he wanted," said Yoram Peri, director of the Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies at the University of Maryland. "Netanyahu realized he had to give in."

Clinton's mild criticism of the East Jerusalem construction today was a far cry from her previous references to Israel's decision as 'harmful" and "an insult."

In his meeting with Obama tomorrow, Netanyahu hopes to show the Israeli public that he has a good relationship with the American president. Polls indicate that most Israelis believe close ties with the U.S. are a strategic asset for Israel.

It will be the men's fourth meeting. Last time, Obama embarrassed Netanyahu by not allowing any photographs to be released. If tomorrow's meeting yields photos of the two men arm in arm, it will be proof that the immediate crisis in U.S.-Israeli relations has ended.